


Arise Imperium

by MemoryMonkey



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Multi, Multiple Plots, Mystery, Natsu is really nice, New Dark guild, New Dimension, Original Character(s), new types of magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-10 19:39:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12306303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MemoryMonkey/pseuds/MemoryMonkey
Summary: Legends tell that a purge will come across the realm of Allkin. As the terror of Imperium magic is manifested in more and more people, they fear that one day there will be no pure magic left. On that day, a great being, a spirit of purity shall come upon this land and wipe Imperium from it, allowing Pure magic to rise once again.Somehow, the Fairy Tail guild once again get caught up in everybody else's trouble.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to a new chapter! Please leave a comment to share your thoughts.
> 
> Welcome to my first Fairy Tail work! This story will start off quite confusing and come together later on. Though ships are not the main focus of this work, there will be a lot of shipping happening. Enjoy!

The sky was a brilliant white, with streaks of gold running through it and illuminating the kingdom below it. The houses and pathways were organised to all lead towards the central fortress, a huge fortified citadel spanning across miles in which all ritualistic magic takes place. Inside this fortress, there was currently an initiation ceremony taking place.

 

Whenever a child is born here, that child does not have magic. Only at the age of fifteen is their magic made possible. Here, in the Kingdom of Allkin, everyone uses Pure magic, a strong white magic.

 

The ceremony takes place every month, and a group of people who have recently turned fifteen come to the initiation courtyard, a magic sensitive area, and they first unlock their magic.

 

Icron was one of those people.

 

He had turned fifteen two days ago, and had been notified that he would be attending the next ceremony, which would be tomorrow. As of now, he was walking towards the fortress for an optional preparation session, in which they would be given a small glimpse of what it would be like.

 

On his way, he met up with a group of other people who had also recently turned fifteen.

 

“Hey Icron. You heading to the fortress too?”

 

Icron sighed. He hated that name. He wished he could be called something else.

 

“Yeah. I'm really nervous about this.”

 

“Aw, come on, relax. Nothing is gonna happen until tomorrow.”

 

“It doesn't matter if it's now or tomorrow, it's just soon. And I can't deal with that. Our lives will change from the initiation ceremony.”

 

Over the next few minutes, a large crowd of new fifteens heading to the preparation session the day before the initiation.

 

Icron sighed again. The stress was awful. Their entire society was so 'perfect' and 'strict' and it was odd. After living in Allkin for 15 years, Icron had decided he'd move away and live elsewhere as soon as he could. Besides, he'd always been different to everyone else. He did different things in his free time and researched different branches of pure magic to everyone else.

 

 

 

 

In the Allkin fortress, a large crowd was gathering. The professor stood atop a large podium, inscribed with runes so he could be heard easily.

 

Icron noted this as he walked in. That was another thing he didn't like about Allkin. They used runes for absolutely _everything._ Runes are powerful and reliable, but any one of them could break at any time, and it would be difficult to find. How hard could it be to just use your own magic for normal household tasks?

 

Of course, Icron wouldn't know.

 

He walked into the huge courtyard with everyone else, sat down, and waited.

 

 

 

 

Soon enough, people had stopped arriving and the gates had closed as the professor cleared his throat, silencing the audience.

 

And so the speech begun.

 

However, it wasn't long before the practical part begun. Everyone was allocated their own specific place designed to give the person in them an experience of their future, covered in runes needless to say, so that they could know what it was like to use magic.

 

There were ten times as many people as rune spots, so there would be ten batches of people who would use them all at once. Icron was near the end, so he took his place on the side and silently watched as people stood in the runes excitedly. He watched and tried to learn all he could.

 

On the professor's word, all the students tried to see their magic. Some worked, many didn't. Of course, it took a proper ceremony to unlock a young person's magic in Allkin, but this was a good taster.

 

Icron watched in amazement as many people had the most brilliant white flames or sparks fly out of their hand, or beautiful white ethereal birds fly circles around them. He watched for hours on end, until it was finally his group's turn.

 

He took his place on a rune spot. He deliberately chose that one, as he could tell it was slightly stronger than the others.

 

He was terrified.

 

And then the professor's word was given.

 

Completely ignoring all the other people around him, he focused as hard as he could on his own magic.

 

Suddenly, he felt the most indescribable power rush through him as the ground around him shook. His vision blacked out as he grasped that power, barely able to control his body.

 

When his vision returned, everyone was staring at him in horror. He looked up and gasped as he saw a giant black sphere floating above him. Black magic. _Imperfect_ magic.

 

He dashed to the side so he wasn't under it, and he was terrified to see that it followed him. But it was far, far worse.

 

Icron realised that he was controlling the black sphere.


	2. Arrival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter! Please leave a comment to share your thoughts!
> 
> Introducing the Fairy Tail guild!

A faint light lit the sky, followed by a tired roll of thunder. The sky had darkened over the cold evening, and a light drizzle made outside travel unpleasant.

 

The inside of the Fairy Tail guild hall was protected from all of this by its study walls on the outside, and the candles and cheer on the inside. A lot of people had got quite drunk, and were merrily singing an old folk song over the hearty talking around the room. The atmosphere was celebratory, as if something great had just happened, but people were just feeling generally well.

 

Suddenly there was a loud smash of a table followed by shouting on one side of the room, causing most of the room to glance that way, but upon realising it was just Natsu and Grey again, everyone ignored them, casually carrying on their conversation over the smashes and shouts, explosions of fire and showers of ice.

 

Makarov was sat in his usual place by the bar, talking to Gildarts about the younger members of the guild, on one of the few occasions when Gildarts was actually at the guild. Kinana was running the bar for the moment while Mirajane was odd running an errand somewhere outside the guildhall.

 

Erza was just tucking into her strawberry cake, when a table flew across the room and shattered on her back. She sighed, and tried again to eat her cake when Grey landed on her table and the whole thing shattered along with her food.

 

Across the room, Evergreen was talking to Elfman about the Thunder Legion's most recent mission, and how Laxus, Freed, and Bickslow was hurt and were currently resting away from the guildhall. She was just going into the details of the mission when a terrified Grey landed in the middle of their table, breaking up their conversation, and Natsu collapsed in a pile of laughter across the room, though he immediately stopped laughing when a furious Erza directed her attention to him

 

And so, half of the guild ended up fighting each other with the other hand casually ignoring them, as another thunder flash rolled by unheard outside.

 

 

 

 

Along with the rain came the cold. Despite her gloves and scarf, Mirajane shivered and she briskly walked down alleyway after alleyway. Makarov had sent her to a local library to pick up a few specific tones related to light and darkness, as Fairy Tail's library had been struggling with a disturbance related to that issue. She knew that Fairy Tail was in perfectly capable hands without her, but she couldn't help smiling to herself about how she was sometimes the only person there who was under control of herself.

 

She carried on forward. The library was in sight.

 

 

 

 

Laxus stared out of his window solemnly, through which he saw the distant guildhall. He lived by himself in a normal Magnolia house, indistinguishable from the others.

 

He smirked when he saw a body fly across the guildhall through a window, and laughed out loud when the poor person went straight through another window into a citizen's house, but immediately fell to his knees and clutched his chest in pain.

 

"Damn giants.." He muttered picking across the giant bandages across his chest.

 

At that moment, Freed walked in holding a cup of tea and a cake he'd bought.

 

"Are you okay, Laxus?"

 

"I'm fine. You should rest too, you know."

 

"You suffered the worst by far. At least we completed the mission."

 

Laxus did live on his own, but Freed spent more time in Laxus's house than in his own at this point.

 

Laxus sighed as he took the tea Freed offered him, and grunted a thanks, sipping it.

 

"Bickslow said he'd head back to the guildhall soon, and Evergreen's already there. Are you sure you'd rather be here on your own than with the rest of the guild?" Laxus queried.

 

Freed chuckled.

 

"You know I'm not exactly an extrovert."

 

Another thunderbolt struck, illuminating the room.

 

"If those giants hadn't... I would shut this damn thunder up.."

 

Freed chuckled again as he sat down.

 

"I suppose we won't be taking another mission for a while?" He asked.

 

"Not in a while." Laxus answered flatly as he made his way to lie down.

 

 

 

 

Mirajane brought her arms to her chest to protect the tomes she'd purchased from the library from the rain. The librarian had been very helpful, and she'd quickly found the tomes Makarov was looking for. She was calmly walking down another alley back to the guildhall when she spotted something odd in her peripheral vision.

 

She spun round and gasped.

 

A small black swirl of magic was forming in an alleyway to her right, like a drop of ink in water.

 

As it slowly grew, she quickly hid behind a crate around a corner, and watched from her hiding spot as the magic swirl grew more and more, sounding like a waterfall, it formed into a solid black sphere the size of her.

 

It seemed as though it wouldn't stop growing, bit eventually it cracked like an egg, and a limp body fell from inside onto the floor.

 

Mirajane watched in horror and amazement as the remnants of the black sphere dissolved, leaving the body alone on the floor.

 

It was a boy, and quite young, younger than Natsu by the looks of him. Mirajane watched carefully as the boy slowly woke up.

 

He pushed himself off the ground and stood up slowly. He seemed terrified. As the last wisps of the black magic aura diffused off him, he rubbed his eyes and looked around. There were tears in his eyes and he was clearly in a lot of pain.

 

After a moment of looking around, he darted down to the end of the alleyway, a dead end. There he curled up on the floor and seemed to have some kind of panic attack.

 

Briefly weighing her options, Mirajane slowly approached the boy, who stared up at her, and tried to back away.

 

"I - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be here.. I'm.. Am I not supposed to be here?"

 

He stuttered. Mirajane pitied the boy.

 

"It's okay." She tried to be as warm as possible, but the bot pressed himself against the wall.

 

"What happened to you?"

 

"I... I'm.. They, they.. because.. I.."

 

The boy collapsed into a crying mess unable to talk

 

"Are you far away from home?"

 

The boy looked up again.

 

"Very far."

 

"And do you know how to get back?"

 

The boy sobbed.

 

"I... No."

 

"You poor soul. This may sound strange, but.. Do you want to come with me? We have plenty of room and food."

 

The boy seemed to consider for a long time.

 

"Really? You'd... Take me in?"

 

"Of course! You look like you need help."

 

The boy slowly stood up, his body clearly damaged.

 

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can't believe you'd just help me like that... You're the most kind person I've ever met..."

 

"My name is Mirajane by the way. What about you?"

 

"I'm.."

 

The boy considered for a while. Then smiled.

 

"My name is Lunanto."

 

And with that, Mirajane took Lunanto by the hand and led him to the Guildhall along with the tomes.


	3. Beginnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter! Please leave a comment to share your thoughts.
> 
> Not much happens here, just plot building.

It was all out war in the Fairy Tail guildhall. If it weren't for Grey and Juvia, the place would have burned down a hundred times over. Erza was smashing people around left and right, swords were flying everywhere. Gajeel stood in the middle trying to fight everyone he could. Makarov and Gildarts were still ignoring everyone. Grey and Natsu were only focused on eachother with Juvia staring in awe. When Bickslow arrived, he sighed and walked straight back home.

 

Suddenly, Makarov perked up.

 

"Mirjane is back."

 

He sensed Mirajane as she walked through one of the side entrances into a corridor towards the medical wing with the tomes he had instructed her to purchase. Oddly, she was carrying a boy who had passed out from weakness.

 

After Laxus had refused to stay in the medical wing and the thunder legion left with him, Mirajane entered to an empty medical wing, where she put the boy down. Makarov stood up and went to talk to her.

 

 

 

 

In the kingdom of Allkin, news spread quickly. Ebon had just finished a meal with his family when they got they news that there had been another one of them. They said it was Icron, who Ebon knew, and as well as sorrow for his friend, Ebon was terrified, as Icron had lived quite close to him.

 

Following the news, he walked back down into their basement where he spent a lot of time, as it was so cool, and the runes covering the walls gave him comfort. It was here where he spend hours a day trying to find his magic. He was fourteen, and it wouldn't be long until he would go through the ceremony as well, and he intended to become a High Warlock, one of Allkin's highest ranks of mage.

 

Recently, he had been close to a breakthrough. He has trained himself hard over the years, and wanted a headstart in the way of magic.

 

Ebon smiled.

 

This was the day.

 

He gathered the small wisps of power he had managed to prematurely generate, and focused it as much as he could, drawing from the calmness and power of the runes around him.

 

He suddenly felt an uncontrollable welling of magic inside of himself. He tried to stop it, but it was far too late. Before he had any idea what was happening, he collapsed to the floor in pain as blackness erupted around him.

 

He lay still for minutes, failing to understand what his body was telling him.

 

The black magic was under his control. He was infected too.

 

He lay still on the floor, unable to think.

 

 

 

 

"Who's this, Mirajane?"

 

Makarov gestured to the boy lying in the hospital bed next to him.

 

"I don't know. I was on my way back to the guildhall when he just.. appeared next to me and collapsed."

 

"And you brought him here?"

 

"I didn't know what to do! He clearly needed help! Just look at him, he's hurt."

 

"Do you know anything else about him?"

 

"He said he was far from home. And lost."

 

"Right then. Let's hope he wakes up soon."

 

"Do you think it could be related to this light and darkness issue we're having?"

 

Mirajane asked.

 

"Well have to take a look at these tomes you have to find out. As of now, we know nothing at all."

 

"Right. I'll get them to the library now."

 

"Very good."

 

Mirajane left, leaving Makarov standing alone.

 

Taking a look at the boy, he realised there was something very weird about his magic that he couldn't quite place. He's never felt it before anywhere.

 

Frowning, Makarov stood up and made his way back to the main hall. The storm outside was worsening, and the drizzle had turned into downpour, though it didn't seem to effect anyone in the guildhall. They were probably too busy fighting to notice.

 

 

 

 

Bickslow never remembered where anyone lived, he just figured it out every time and then forgot afterwards. As he walked through the heavy rain, he watched the lightning carefully.

 

Every time it struck it arced slightly.

 

After a while, he figured out that it always arced towards one specific house, which Laxus must be in.

 

He didn't mind the rain, so he walked calmly towards the house, and recognised it as soon as he saw it because its extremely undecorated exterior.

 

He knocked on the door, extinguishable only by the thunder metal engravings on it.

 

Eventually it was opened, and warmth flooded him along with a distinct sparky scent.

 

"You look like crap Laxus."

 

"Just get in before you waste all our heat."

 

After Bickslow entered, Laxus closed the door and sat down where he was before.

 

"Should have expected to see you here, Freed. Have you got anywhere else to be?"

 

"Of course, I just choose to be here. What are you doing here anyway?"

 

"They were fighting in there. I'm too tired for that."

 

"Again?" Laxus asked.

 

"Yeah, of course. That's all they ever do. It's a wonder no one's died yet."

 

"Oh yeah, Evergreen was hiding behind Elfman as he hit people. It was hilarious. I have her a look and pointed at Elfman, and she gave me the most haunting deathstare I've ever seen. So if she ever turns up here, hide me."

 

Freed chuckled.

 

"You'll be fine."

 

"How are your injuries treating ya Laxus?"

 

"I'm fine, Bickslow."

 

"If you were fine, your thunder wouldn't be so out of control. I almost got struck."

 

"Maybe that was deliberate." Freed commented, causing Laxus to chuckle.

 

"Yeah. Maybe it was."

 

Bickslow looked offended.

 

"You'd never."

 

There was a pause.

 

"Listen.." Laxus begun. 

 

"I've been a little bothered since our mission. Those giants. They're usually so calm and peaceful, but when we turned up, they just attacked us. Something's been bothering them."

 

"Well, we completed the job, right? 

 

"Yeah."

 

Laxus seemed troubled.

 

"I need to go back there."

 

"What?" Freed was shocked.

 

"You can't go back. Especially not in your current condition."

 

"Something was wrong with them, and taking their power crystal from their further reaches, forcing them back into their property isn't a solution. It would only make life worse for them."

 

"But Laxus, they'll kill us!" Bickslow shouted. Although Laxus had taken the brunt of the damage, Bickslow and Evergreen had been targeted by their fear spells, which had lasting effects unless treated.

 

"Then you don't have to come."

 

"Don't be absurd, Laxus. We're coming with you." Freed argued.

 

"No chance I'm ever going back there." Bickslow could refer, terrified.

 

"I guess we can count Evergreen out too. Freed, in a few days we're going back to find out what's made them so aggressive. Bickslow, you tell Evergreen if she doesn't come here."

 

Bickslow stared at the floor, still under the fear curse, while Laxus and Freed got up to prepare.

 

 

 

 

Ebon had just finished his daily routine, and was sat down at home, thinking. He had discovered that he had impure magic a few days ago, and he had tried to conceal it.

 

So far, he had been successful.

 

The reason he was so afraid of it was that his family were strongly against impurity, so much so that if they found out, they would hand him to the authorities straight away.

 

He had decided earlier that day that he would leave. His early ceremonial session was just a few days away, and he would surely be found out then.

 

As he was currently alone in the house, now was his best chance.

 

He had packed all his important belongings before scribbling down a note about why he was leaving and left it on the table.

 

Impure magic simply wouldn't be able to survive in Allkin.

 

 

 

 

"Are you ready to stop pretending to sleep yet?"

 

Makarov asked Lunanto in the hospital, who he had sensed the consciousness awaken in minutes ago. It was late in the evening and most people were asleep.

 

"I understand that you could be panicking right now, or that you might not trust us, but we have no negative intentions. You can stand up and leave any time you want."

 

Lunanto slowly opened his eyes.

 

"Where am I now? Who are you?"

 

"I understand that you fell unconscious with Mirajane, and she carried you here. We are currently in the Fairy Tail guild hospital, in Magnolia, in the kingdom of Fiore. I am the guild master Makarov, and I am very concerned for your well-being."

 

Lunanto sighed and fell back down onto the bed.

 

"So am I - sir."

 

"There's no need for such formality here. Now, could you please explain to me how you got here?"

 

"I..."

 

Lunanto stopped, tears welling in his eyes.

 

"I-"

 

"You don't have to say if you don't want to. But where are you from?"

 

"I'm from the Kingdom of Allkin."

 

Makarov hid his surprise.

 

"I've never heard of Allkin before."

 

"What? Where is Fiore? How can you not have heard of Allkin?"

 

Makarov frowned.

 

"Believe me, I have extensive knowledge of nations outside of Fiore. Just know that this can be your home if you want. You can stay here and eat here for free until you've figured out where you are and where you want to be."

 

"Thank you, sir - eh, Makarov. You and Mirajane are too kind."

 

Makarov smiled.

 

"You can come and meet the rest of the guild whenever you're ready. Until then, I can take you to your private dorm, or you could stay here."

 

"I'd like to stay for a while. Thank you."

 

"Okay. I'll be back in a few hours. Stay safe." Makarov stood up and left.

 

Lunanto waited a moment. The moment the old man had left, he bolted upright.

 

Quickly, he jumped out of bed and ran to the door. They might follow him. The High Warlocks might follow him. If they did, he would be dead meat.

 

He needed to know where he was, and if he was being followed. He smiled when he realised there were no runes littering the walls, but frowned when he realised he couldn't use their magic.

 

Without runes, he couldn't use magic. Apart from...

 

Lunanto frowned and gritted his teeth, recalling back to the moment when he discovered his magic was tainted. The giant black explosion that had shamed him and hurt him so much.

 

He was afraid that it would send him somewhere else, away from the hospitable "Fairy Tail guild", whatever that was.

 

Pushing his fears aside, he tried to summon up the power he had used before, and surprisingly it happened easily and smoothly, as a large black sphere materialized above him. Experimentally, he moved it about a little and it was surprisingly responsive as it crashed into a solid stone wall and left a dent.

 

He was amazed by the power, but it achieved nothing.

 

He exited the medical room and found a sign that pointed towards the library. At least he and those of "Fiore" spoke the same language.

 

He followed the signs for a good while, avoiding people whenever he saw them.

 

Eventually he reached a huge collection of books and tomes that reeked of magic, even though he couldn't use normal magic.

 

Thankfully it was empty.

 

He walked in and got to work.


	4. Bane's Gate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter! Please leave a comment to share your thoughts.
> 
> More plot-building.

Freed awoke with a start. Something was wrong. He stood up and remembered that he was sleeping in Laxus's house, a habit that had been growing recently.

 

He remembered Bickslow's smug grin when he said he'd sleep in this house instead of his own.

 

He quickly threw on his clothes, and left the room, trying hard not to disturb Laxus in the room next to him. He made his way downstairs and left the house without delay, running straight for the guildhall, without knowing why.

 

When he finally arrived, it was empty. He had never noticed how creepy it was at night time with no one alone, especially as the storm had ended and it was silence.

 

He was running down a corridor when an ear-splitting hum came from the library and he fell to the ground, clutching his head.

 

 

 

 

Lunanto had looked through hundreds of books. Not a single one had showed him where he was compared to Allkin, and any books with magical text made no sense to him, infuriatingly.

 

He was near giving up when he saw a few books on a table that he recognised. They were the tomes that Mirajane was holding when she had brought him to the Guildhall.

 

He approached them, but felt an odd force pushing him backwards.

 

Ignoring it, he pushed forwards and touched one of the books.

 

It released a painful roar as he was hoisted into the air inside of some kind of magical sphere that took all his power.

 

He floated helplessly in the air as a deafening roar filled the entire guildhall.

 

 

 

 

Mirajane burst through her door as she saw Freed clutching his head on the floor.

 

"Freed! Freed, are you okay? What happened?"

 

"Get to the library! Something is happening there!"

 

Recognising the serious tone in his voice, Mirajane set off in a sprint towards the library.

 

When she arrived, she saw a solid sphere of white magic coming from one of the new tomes.

 

As she was stood near it inspecting it, Makarov appeared behind her.

 

"This is a defense spell. Something disturbed this library to an extreme extent, so it set all its power to incapacitating it." He begun.

 

He cast a quick spell, and the sphere disappeared along with the sound, revealing Lunanto who fell to the ground again.

 

"You.. What did you do?"

 

"I'm sorry, I just came in here to find out-"

 

"Where you are? You won't find it! Allkin is in a different dimension!"

 

Lunanto stared.

 

"Hold on a minute Third master. The library disturbance.. Could it be related to Lunanto?"

 

Makarov turned to Lunanto.

 

"If you say something to say, you'd best say it now, boy."

 

Lunanto stared at the ground.

 

"I see. Mirajane, take him to his dormitory."

 

"Of course."

 

As Mirajane took Lunanto away, Makarov quickly made his way to the corridor where Freed had collapsed, though Laxus had beaten him there.

 

"Freed.. What the hell? You worried me."

 

"I'm sorry, Laxus. Something was wrong. I had to check-" Freed struggled to keep his voice steady at Laxus's extremely rare caring tone.

 

"It's so unlike you to leave in the middle of the night like that. I was woken up by a bunch of drunkards when I noticed you were gone."

 

"I'm sorry. Laxus.. Ah, Third Master. Did you discover what happened?" Freed asked, noticing Makarov.

 

"It was.. We shouldn't be discussing this yet. At some point, I'll make it clear to the guild what this is all about, but for now you should just forget about it."

 

 

 

 

Ebon had set off walking days ago, and had almost ran out of food. He had no doubt that his family understand why he left, and were glad he did in a way.

 

Despite his planning and studying though, he had no idea what to do. He may have been very knowledgeable in his old life, but it seemed that the world outside of Allkin was so odd.

 

A few hours into his journey, Ebon had passed through an odd barrier, and the landscape changed around him. When he looked behind, Allkin was completely gone. It was as if he'd travelled through a one-way wall to another dimension.

 

Now he was left starving and clueless with absolutely no way to get to Allkin if he turned back.

 

And that was when he met the first person outside of Allkin. It was night time, the sky starry in a beautiful way he had never seen in before.

 

He was walking along the road with a bag on his back and a stick in his hand, when he heard a voice.

 

"Hey little fellow, you alright?"

 

Ebon gasped and noticed a hooded figure in black stood by the road, leaning against a pillar.

 

"Sorry, I didn't see you."

 

The figure lit a torch and held it up up to Ebon.

 

"You don't look particularly well. Trying to get somewhere?"

 

"Well, no. I'm..." Ebon couldn't keep talking. He'd never had to talk to a stranger before.

 

"Trust me kid, I know what it's like. You've no home. You're an outcast, right?"

 

Ebon stared for a moment.

 

"How?"

 

"Believe me kid, I know an outcast when I see one. There are dozens of outcasts that have come here. I'm one myself."

 

"Dozens that have come here, sir?"

 

"That's right. If you're wondering, if you have no home, then you're lucky you found us. They say Lady Luck leads people like you to us."

 

"Wait, who's 'us'?"

 

"We're a magical guild, see."

 

"A what?"

 

The hooded figure smirked.

 

"Haven't heard of a magic guild? You must be from far away."

 

"Extremely far."

 

"Well then, welcome home kid. Follow me."

 

Without a thought, Ebon followed the figure into a passageway in the side of a hill, praising the Gods for his fortune.

 

The passageway lead into a downward stairway that seemed to lead down and down forever, but eventually the two of them reached a large door, decorated with inscriptions of a huge beast locked behind bars, literature that Ebon didn't recognise.

 

"Excuse me, sir, what does this depict?"

 

The figure frowned for a moment, then faced the door again.

 

"It's nothing really, just a decoration."

 

The figure pressed his middle and index finger to the door, and after a moment a small red ripple spread across the door, and they swung open revealing a huge underground hall covered in tables and full of people who didn't pay any attention to the door opening.

 

No one would call Ebon out for being different.

 

Ebon smiled.

 

"Welcome to the home of wanderers, the Bane's Gate guild."

 

 

 

 

With a huge smile, Freed walked down Magnolia's streets. Behind him lingered Evergreen, Bickslow and Laxus, who couldn't look more desolate.

 

"Is this really necessary?" Bickslow complained.

 

"You said it would be fun." Laxus added.

 

"Going to visit a museum is a perfectly fun activity." Freed answered, his smile unwavering.

 

Freed was surprised that he even managed to get them out of the house. They were just sat about doing nothing, and if they couldn't go on a mission together until Bickslow and Evergreen got rid of their fear curses, they might as well get out and do something.

 

Once they arrived though, Bickslow and Evergreen were surprised to find there were some very interesting things there. Petrified models, possessed statues left in odd positions. The two made a game out of distinguishing them from each other.

 

Throughout their stay, despite Laxus's complete lack of interest in everything, Freed stayed by his side desperately trying to make him enjoy something.

 

Much to The disappointment, Laxus maintained his stoic face throughout the entire stay. It seemed as though not a single item caught his attention. Nothing engaged him.

 

Nothing, it seemed, until the evening, when they were making their way out. Then, Laxus suddenly turned to his left, staring at one of the upper walkways.

 

"What is it, Laxus?" Freed asked. No one else had seen or heard anything.

 

Laxus's frown deepened as he traced something with his eyes. Then he turned to the guard current on duty.

 

"Hey. Museum's closing his, right?"

 

"That is correct."

 

"And no one's allowed in?"

 

"Yes."

 

With a sigh, Laxus bolted back into the museum. The guard was about to call him back, but Freed gave him a look, and the three followed him in.

 

"Laxus, what is it?" Freed asked again.

 

"Saw someone poking around."

 

With a huge leap followed by sparks, Laxus jumped up to a high ledge in the hall and begun looking around.

 

Freed smiled at the image, but was brought back to reality when he saw a figure dash through a door on the other end of the hall, Laxus sprinting after it. Quickly, Freed begun to lay runes down that would disallow any unwanted visitors to from leaving as Bickslow and Evergreen went off to search.

 

After a brief few sparks and shakes, Freed hears cursing as Laxus emerged through the door on his own.

 

"He just disappeared."

 

"What?" Freed asked, astounded.

 

"Into thin air. This could be something serious. I'm gonna talk to the Old man about this."

 

And with that, the four made thier way back to their homes.


	5. Conflict

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter! Please leave a comment to share your thoughts.
> 
> First few missions start to happen here as part of the picture starts to come together.

“Third master, you know that he can't just live here all cooped up. If he really is from Allkin, then he's grown up in an extremely sheltered society. He needs to get out, just a little.”

 

“You're right Mirajane. I've been considering sending him on a small mission with Natsu to see what he's capable of.”

 

Mirajane laughed.

 

“Natsu? You know that he's not exactly the safest of people.” Commented.

 

“Why send him with the safest of people if you want him to not be sheltered?” Makarov responded.

 

“I see. Well, I'll talk to them now” Mirajane concluded while walking off, Makarov grunting acknowledgement.

 

 

 

 

Freed and Laxus had just finished their preparations and were taking to the streets of Magnolia. A cool gust of wind blew past them taking dust with it, setting a stern atmosphere as they begun their way to the Southern giant camp to find out why they have been acting so violently recently.

 

Not only did they posses such tremendous strength that three giants alone proved a challenge for the whole Thunder Legion, but they had an extremely powerful terror spell, which made the idea of so much as going near them absolutely out of the question for the poor receivers of the spell's effect. Last time the Thunder Legion went, Bickslow and Evergreen were caught in it.

 

“So, Laxus.. What makes you think we can just stroll in and find out what's wrong? What if one of us gets the terror spell?”

 

Laxus sighed.

 

“If they try to mess with us this time, I won't hold back.”

 

The two made their way to the railway, where they caught a train to the South, and continued their journey to the giant camp.

 

 

 

 

“So let me get this straight.. There's a new guy who's just turned up out of nowhere, joined our guild, and now he's gonna be doing a mission with me, no questions asked?” Natsu asked, dumbfounded.

 

“Believe me Natsu, Makarov and I have a lot of questions for him, but now is just not the right time to ask-”

 

“But he turned up... _Out of thin air?_ ” Natsu repeated. Mirajane frowned.

 

“Eh?”

 

“Don't think too hard about it Natsu, you'll burn your brain out. Let's just go already!” Happy added.

 

“HEY! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU SAYING ABOUT ME?”

 

Mirajane sighed in annoyance, silencing Natsu as they walked down a corridor to the living areas.

 

“Lunanto, this is Natsu Dragneel. You're going to be accompanying him on a short mission to find out what you can do.”

 

“Oh, eh-hey, Natsu. Good to meet you.”

 

“Same to you little fella! Let's go!” Natsu shouted, picking up Lunanto and casually walking down the corridor, leaving a confused Mirajane behind.

 

“You don't know where you're going Natsu.”

 

...

 

“Oh yeah.. My bad!”

 

Mirajane showed Natsu and Lunanto the mission she had with her. It was just a simple mission, to stop a commonly appearing group of bandits raiding a village.

 

Taking the slip, Natsu carried on down the corridor with a huge grin on his face, dragging with him a dumbfounded Lunanto with him.

 

“Who _is_ this person?” He mouthed to Mirajane, making her laugh.

 

 

 

 

As the train came to a halt, passengers begun to make their way out. It was mid day and the air was getting warm and casual. Several holiday-goers passed by, some staring confusedly at the pair of wizards armed with bags and weapons, making their way through the station.

 

“I just don't understand. What do you intend to do once we get there?” The shorter of the two asked.

 

“Ask'em what the hell is wrong. If they don't answer, we'll just look around until we find something. Just relax, all right Freed? They're not that dangerous. They caught us unaware last time.”

 

After another few minutes of walking, Laxus and Freed had reached the town that had recently been attacked by giants so many times. Looking around at the destruction, Laxus scowled.

 

They continued South until the dreaded sight of the camp appeared before them, on the meeting point between a thick forest and a vast extensive plain there was a _huge_ camp fire with several grotesque figures sat around it, about 15-20 feet tall, mumbling an unintelligible dialect.

 

Listening to them for a short while, Laxus perked up.

 

“That reminds me, Freed. Do you have any idea what they're saying?”

 

“I'm afraid I don't know the language. Though if I'm right, it's quite similar to one I know.”

 

“So what are they talking about?” Laxus asked.

 

Freed sighed.

 

“Sex.” He said with a straight face.

 

“Idiots.” Laxus concluded.

 

“Yep.”

 

“Well, here goes nothing.” Laxus said, standing up.

 

“Wait, hold on a second!” Freed begun.

 

“What is it?”

 

“I think they're talking about thieves now..”

 

“Okay, so what?”

 

“I'm guessing something was stolen from them.”

 

Laxus frowned in contemplation. The two were hidden under a bush in deep tree cover, yet Freed was slightly anxious about being spotted by giants.

 

“Any idea what?”

 

Freed listened, his trained brain making complex links and references, trying to figure anything out from the gibberish he was hearing.

 

“Em, some kind of gem I think.”

 

“I think I know what they're talking about.”

 

“What?” Freed asked.

 

“Follow me. And good work, by the way.” Laxus said, creeping towards the camp.

 

Freed felt warmness from the rare compliment, outshone only by sheer curiosity as Laxus led them further South. The camp was surprisingly extensive, and Freed was growing more and more nervous.

 

“Laxus, please. What are we looking for?”

 

“In the center of most giant camps, they keep a Life crystal. If we're right, then their life crystal has been stolen. That would be why they're so hostile.”

 

Eventually, they reached some discernible centre to the camp, where a large stone alter stood, and within its hands, a small empty gap.

 

“That must be it. I'm gonna get a closer look at it.” Laxus begun, creeping towards it.

 

Somehow, the two got to the alter without being noticed. Laxus had climbed up to the tip and got a good look at the emptiness before concluding that their Life crystal had been stolen. He was about to tell Freed when suddenly the alter shook violently, purple text arching around it.

 

Laxus dropped to the ground and looked up to see a giant had smashed its club against one of Freed's walls.

 

“It won't take another hit! I had to put it up in a split-second when I saw it coming!” Freed shouted as the giant moved its arms back to take another swing.

 

Without hesitating, Laxus grabbed Freed tightly around the waist and entered lightning form, bolting away and narrowly escaping the massive club smashing into the ground beneath them. Having achieved what they came for, Laxus begun making his way back to the station in this form, as some giants were still following him.

 

“Nice work, Freed.” He added.

 

 

 

 

“All right, we're here!” Natsu shouted, followed by Happy and Lunanto upon entering the village.

 

Casually strolling forwards with his hands behind his head, he came across the village elder.

 

“Are you the wizards from Fairy Tail?”

 

“That's us. Tell us what we gotta do.”

 

The three were posted behind a set of bushes on a pathway nearby the village, and soon enough, a group of 6 armed men begun making their way across the road.

 

Natsu smiled, before jumping out in front of them.

 

“Where do you all think _you're_ going?”

 

“Hey, look'ere. We got ourselves a tough guy.” The men raised their weapons menacingly.

 

Natsu cracked his knuckles.

 

While Lunanto watched in amazement, Natsu breathed in, and seemed to _roar_ out a huge wave of flame, knocking 4 men to the ground, unconscious. He had never before seen such an immense magic power.

 

“Well come on up, loony! I ain't having all the fun for you!” Natsu begun.

 

Gritting his teeth, Lunanto stood up, and conjured up the black sphere he had used before. Finding it surprisingly easy to control, he sent it straight into one of the bandits, knocking the breath out of him, and staggering him, before immediately hitting the other bandit with it, who blocked it with his shield.

 

Natsu smirked.

 

“Not bad, but you've got a way to go!” He commented smugly before effortlessly punching them to the ground.

 

“So, that's what a mission is like then?” Lunanto begun.

 

“Easiest one I've ever done, but basically yeah.”

 

As the two made their way back through the village, Lunanto paused by the library when he sensed something emanating from within it.

 

“Hold on a second.” He walked through the library doors, confused to find that nothing was out of the ordinary.

 

“Can I.. Help you?” The librarian asked.

 

“I sensed something strange from within here. Is something happening?”

 

“Actually, yes. I lot of passing wizards have noticed. This library is having some kind of struggle of light and darkness. All the respective books are glowing, and their texts are shifting. In fact, this is happening with a lot of libraries. Something odd is afoot.”

 

“I see. Thank you.” Lunanto answered, remembering that Mirajane, when he first met her, was going to a library regarding light and darkness. He should inform Makarov.

 

Going outside, he saw Natsu amusedly looking through a small pile of money and stared at it. Natsu looked up at him, then waved the money in front of Lunanto.

 

“It's our pay. For completing the mission. Keep it.”

 

 

 

 

As Laxus pushed through the guildhall doors looking slightly worried, the guild went quiet. Worried Laxus was a rare image.

 

“Hey, old man. I got important news.”

 

“Hmm? What is it?”

 

“The recently hostile giants. Their life crystal has been stolen. There's a lot more to it, though. Remember how there were thieves in the museum?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Well, that museum's more important items are protected by life force magic. The only way to get past that security is with a life crystal. I think that someone's planning some kind of heist on the Museum.”

 

“I see. This is important news indeed.”

 

Before anyone had time to process the weight of what had been said, Lunanto and Natsu made their way through the door, Lunanto looking worried.

 

“Third master? We need to talk.”


	6. Confirmation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter! Please leave a comment to share your thoughts.
> 
> The plot is well underway here, with more focus on Team Natsu.

After Makarov's conversation with Lunanto a few hours ago, the old man was quite stressed. Apparently this light/dark issue in libraries was a lot wider than he had thought, and quite possibly a huge threat.

 

He was getting lost in thought and didn't notice his grandson approaching him.

 

“There was something else I didn't tell you earlier, old man. The thieves from the Museum.. They're from Bane's Gate. A dark guild. And the one I almost caught almost teleported away, so they have some pretty advanced magic.”

 

“Hmm. This truly is a disturbing piece of information.” The complexion on Makarov's face deepened as he processed what Laxus had told him.

 

“What makes you think they're Bane's Gate?”

 

“I saw their Logo. It can't be missed.”

 

“I see. Good work my boy.”

 

“Ugh. I just caught a thief. Quit callin me that, old man.”

 

“I'll keep an eye on them then.”

 

Natsu smiled devilishly as he hid behind a pillar, listening in on their conversation. It was late evening and the guildhall was almost completely empty apart from the three of them. Bane's Gate? Perhaps he could pay them a visit.

 

 

 

 

The next day, Lunanto was just as curious as Natsu. He supposed that if was going to fit in, he'd have to do something useful once in a while. So, he came to the idea that he'd investigate the Magnolia museum, and try to catch a thief.

 

Laxus had said that the thieves were snooping around during the evening, so he'd wait until then.

 

Meanwhile, inside the main Guildhall, Natsu was sat on a table with Lucy, Grey and Erza. Juvia was, for once, not around Gray, and Wendy was busy on mission at the time.

 

“So, guess what I herad Laxus and gramps talking about last evening!” He begun.

 

“You listened in on the Guildmaster?” Erza begun, a dark aura forming around her.

 

“Hey hey, hear me out! You know the thieves from the Magnolia museum?”

 

“Yeah..” Gray answered.

 

“Welp, turns out they're from Bane's Gate. Waddayasay we pay them a little visit?” Natsu asked childishly.

 

“What would we say, 'H _ey, can we please ask why you're trying to invade the museum of Magnolia'_?” Gray asked.

 

“HEY! YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH EVERYTHIN I SAY, SAY IT!” Natsu immediately shouted.

 

“MAYBE I HAVE, CUS EVERYTHING YOU HAVE TO SAY IS STUPID!” Gray responded.

 

“Quiet!” Erza silenced them.

 

“Now, say we do pay them a visit. What did you have in mind, Natsu?”

 

“I dunno, pretend we wanna join them an' poke around!” Natsu answered her.

 

“Hey, a plan that doesn't involve immediately fighting everyone. Good work, Natsu!” Happy commented.

 

“Thanks Happy!”

 

“I don't see why not. So long as it's quick.” Gray begun.

 

“All right. I'm with you.” Erza added.

 

“Well then, let's.... Hey, wait a second! You weren't being serious, were you Happy!” Natsu shouted.

 

“Ya idiot.” Gray added.

 

“WHAT DID YOU-”

 

Erza stood up.

 

“Let's go then.”

 

 

 

 

A little while later, the sky had darkened. Lunanto was lingering outside the museum, looking out for anything. In his brief time outside of Allkin so far, he had learned how drastically different it was from home. He still wasn't used to the fact that there weren't runes anywhere. Everyone had to rely on their own magic, and the only magic he know was the black sphere thing.

 

Sitting in the cold and dark with no diversion but to focus, he sighed, on the verge of giving up.

 

Until he spotted a group of silhouettes shifting their way into the building, somehow passing through security.

 

He stood bolt upright, instantly running to through the entrance. As people were leaving, he was among the only person left.

 

Eventually, everyone was gone apart from him.

 

“Hey, kid. Museum closes in a few minutes. Get out soon, okay?”

 

“Right.” Lunanto responded to the guardsman poking his head around the corner.

 

Seeing no one, he ventured further into the museum.

 

And suddenly, eight people appeared around him, pointing weapon at him.

 

“This kid seems like he's looking for someone.” One said.

 

“Perhaps he knows more than he should?” Another added.

 

“Wait, hold a moment-” Lunanto begun.

 

“Quiet!” One cut him off.

 

“What do we do with him?”

 

“Just kill him and be done with it.”

 

“Wait!” One of them shouted.

 

All heads turned to him, a young child, barely Fourteen.

 

Suddenly Lunanto recognised him.

 

“Ebon?”

 

“Icron, is it really you?”

 

Lunanto laughed.

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

Ebon faced the ground.

 

“I.. Had Imperium. I left Allkin.”

 

Before Lunanto could process this, they were interrupted.

 

“Hate to break up your little reunion, but we got work to do. Kill him.”

 

“I SAID WAIT!” Ebon shouted, a thick grey mist forming around the group.

 

“Hey, hold on kid.. Stop wacha doin..” One of them nervously begun.

 

“And I said kill him. Kill him and the newcomer.”

 

Suddenly, all weapons faced Lunanto and Ebon as they were pushed into a corner.

 

Desperately, Lunanto summoned up the sphere, though one of the mages easily pushed it aside and held it with telekinesis.

 

“Weak spell.” He commented.

 

As they walked closer and closer to the two, Ebon stepped forward, and raised his arms.

 

Around him suddenly formed a huge grey mass, which violently leapt towards the crowd, absorbing them all. Their shouts were barely heard before they were cut out.

 

Eventually the grey mass faded, leaving the bodies of the invaders strewn across the floor. They both stared in horror.

 

“Ebon, what the-”

 

“I don't know!”

 

“Come on, we need to get out of here!” Lunanto grabbed Ebon by the arm and sprinted out of the museum, straight towards the guildhall.

 

“Where are we going?” Ebon asked.

 

“I'll explain later!” Lunanto responded, just before bursting through the doors into the main hall.

 

Everyone stared at the two. To most people, they were both complete strangers. As silence fell, Makarov quickly stood up and made their way over to them. He gestured for them to follow him before making his way to a side room.

 

“Lunanto! What is happening?”

 

“Sorry, sir, I.. This is Ebon. He is also from Allkin.”

 

“Lunanto?” Ebon asked.

 

“That's my name. You know I never liked Icron. You were banished too, I take it?” Lunanto asked.

 

“No. I fled from Allkin and landed up with Bane's Gate. I had no idea that they would kill like that, I'm.. I'm sorry..”

 

“Bane's Gate?” Luannto asked, warily.

 

“Yes..”

 

“Third master, do you have any idea what happened? We were cornered by a group of Bane soldiers when Ebon released some kind of Grey mass which knocked them all out.”

 

Makarov pondered.

 

“Firstly, Ebon, you were in Bane's Gate, yes?”

 

“Yes, sir.”

 

“Do you know anything of the Museum of Magnolia, or the Southern giant settlements?”

 

“Nothing at all, sir.”

 

“I see. Well, to answer your question, I think that what you used was Greykin magic. You see, when someone has Imperium magic in Allkin, they are banished so that it doesn't become Greykin, which is extremely destructive and uncontrollable.”

 

Ebon faced the ground.

 

“I see.”

 

“Well, I suppose I should introduce you to the rest of the guild.” Makarov said, making his way back to the main hall.

 

 

 

 

Natsu, Grey, Lucy and Erza were walking down a pathway in the dark. Bane's Gate was well known to be _“The Wanderers' Guild”_ , which stray wanderers always found their way to. So, they were all carrying large bags and wearing rags. Having found the entrance to the Bane's Gate guild through some thorough research with Levy's help, they were on their way there now.

 

“Well hello there, you four.” A sly voice came from a figure previously unnoticed, right beside them.

 

“Trying to get somewhere?”

 

“Nowhere in mind.” Erza put on her best desolate face, secretly taking immense pride in her acting abilities.

 

“Far from home?” The figure asked.

 

“Further than ever.” Erza continued.

 

“Well then. Welcome to the Bane's Gate guild, friends.”


	7. Above the gate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter! Please leave a comment to share your thoughts.
> 
> Sorry this took so long, I got a little caught up at the end and was unsure on what to write. There will be fluff moments scattered throughout the stories.

Erza entered the guildhall, following the shady figure. As they had planned, Erza would do most of the talking if she could, with the others following. Surprised by how easy it was to get into their guildhall as the descended a large staircase, Natsu smiled. He was itching for a good fight, but he knew he couldn't cause a havoc.

 

Because if he did, he'd have Erza to deal with.

 

Once they reached the bottom of the staircase, they saw a large door with an odd carving on it of a demon head behind bars.

 

The figure opened the door, allowing them to enter into the large cavern that was their guildhall, packed to the brim with travellers and dark wizards.

 

Once the door was closed behind them, they smiled. Too easy. Immediately, the four of them made their way trying to figure out what Bane's Gate was after from the museum.

 

 

 

 

Levy clutched her clothes around her tightly. It was winter, and every night was colder than the last. Though she walked through the bitter winter cold towards the museum of Magnolia, she didn't mind, because she was walking with Gajeel. She allowed herself a smile before another gust of wind chilled her to the bone, causing her to shiver.

 

Gajeel noticed and felt his iron-cold heart warm for a moment as he took off his coat and gently placed it on her shoulders without a word. The cold didn't really get to him. Makarov had sent them to defend the museum due to the recent attacks, which he didn't really mind. Recently he'd been rather busy in the guildhall wand was just waiting for a good fight.

 

As Pantherlily walked beside them, he wondered why Makarov sent Levy with them. She wasn't exactly a fighter. She certainly didn't mind though, for whatever reason. Gajeel shrugged and carried on, glad for her company, though Pantherlily was company enough for him.

 

Back at the guildhall, Makarov allowed himself a giggle. Everyone in Fairy Tail knew that there was somthing between Gajeel and Levy, but neither of them would admit it. That is why Levy was going with Gajeel.

 

The two of them set up their post just inside the museum. Makarov had made an agreement with the museum's owners that his guild would protect it, so they were allowed in. While Levy instantly pulled out a bag full of books and got to work on them, Gajeel walked around the museum, taking brief looks at everything.

 

Museums never interested Gajeel.

 

Eventually he sat down and glanced at Levy. It was impressive how quickly she could read. It was captivating.

 

After a short while, he realised he was staring. Unfortunately, she realised too, and instantly a strong blush crept onto her cheeks.

 

"Why are you just staring?"

 

"Eh? Nothin else to look at around here. Got bored. We're here for the whole night, anyway."

 

Levy got back to her work. Or at least tried to, until she realised she was too cold and tired to work properly.

 

"Okay, fine, you win." Levy stared.

 

"Eh?"

 

"I can't work like this." She explained with a sigh, looking up at Gajeel.

 

"What do you suggest we do?" She asked.

 

 

 

 

"Hey you guys, check this out.." Lucy pointed to a large sculpture on the main wall of a demon head behind bars, just like the one on the door.

 

"It must have some significance." Erza thought aloud.

 

"Well, this is called _'Bane's Gate'_. Perhaps its name actually means something?" Gray suggested.

 

"Hmm, I don't think so. Don't see a whole lot of gates aroud here." Natsu honestly answered, squinting his eyes. Lucy laughed.

 

Gray and Erza sighed.

 

"Everyone knows that Bane was killed thousands of years ago, Gray." Erza started.

 

"It's legend. A large group of extremely powerful wizards killed Bane before it could cause too much destruction." She fnished.

 

"What if that's not true?" Lucy suggested.

 

"Yeah, what if it killed them?" Natsu thought.

 

"That's not what she mean, you numbskull!" Gray started.

 

"Just don't. Not here." Erza interrupted.

 

"While it's a possibility that this place has some connection to Bane, we'll need to find more evidence before we can make such a hefty claim."

 

"How about we search a little deeper in here?" Natsu suggested.

 

"Right. Let's go." Erza allowed it, making her way towards a large corridor. Right at the end of the corridor was a large door that read _'High ranks only'_.

 

"Well, if anything is gonna tell us what we want to know, it'll be through there." Gray suggested.

 

Natsu pushed the door. It's heavy lock made a clanking sound.

 

"Quiet Natsu! You'll blow our cover!" Erza demanded.

 

"I've got this." Gray begun, moulding a key out of ice.

 

"I didn't realise you could do that." Erza begun.

 

"I usually can't. This is just a very old, common lock which I figured out how to craft the key for a while back."

 

The ice key slid in comfortably, producing a satisfying click as the door unlocked, and noiselessly swung open. The group quietly made their way, closing the door behind them. It lead into a small, open area with several small doorways coming out of it. It was cold, with free cave wind currents flowing through it, though there was one main, large door with demonic engravings on it. Curious, the group walked up to it and listened at the keyhole.

 

"What was that? The kid's walked out on us?" A piercing, cruel voice begun.

 

"Yes. People are saying he joined Fairy Tail." Responded an icy voice like grinding bone.

 

"Fairy Tail? That's not good. It's the closest guild to the Museum, and potentially very problematic."

 

"Right. They're setting up guards at the Museum, actually."

 

"We'll deal with them in due course. In the meantime, how's progress on the ark sword?"

 

"Same as always, master. We have the life crystal. The public still believes that Bane's not a threat anymore."

 

"Excellent. As soon as we can aquire the sword, the carnage of Bane will be ours."

 

Lucy sharply inhaled.

 

Suddenly, an icy cold presence lingered over them.

 

"We're being listened to."

 

Erza barely had time to grab everyone else and sprint through the door back into the main cavern when the engraved door smashed open, a deformed warrior of bone leaped out in front of a man wearing a tall mask and ragged, dark cloak.

 

Erza kept sprinting down the corridor.

 

"STOP THEM! THEY'RE SPIES!" The voice of the masked figure boomed through the hall as everyone immediately turned to Erza, jumping towards her with various weapons and spells.

 

Casually pushing off their numerous attacks, Erza had almost reached the exit when a large humanoid figure suddenly formed in front of her, soaked in blood. It seemed that several human organis and bones, loosely covered inskin, were animated in some kind of atronach form, suspended in front of them.

 

"Deidjin! Destroy them!"

 

Immediately, the figure retracted its hand and punched Erza. With her lightning reactions, she instantly drew her shield and blocked the hit. However, it was far more powerful than she'd thought, easily smashing her to the ground, and looming over her.

 

"What _is_ this?" Erza asked, horrified.

 

Stoic, it raised an arm above her and shattered the ground around them, Erza barely having time to get out of its way.

 

Looking around, Gray realised that apart from the main entrances, there were several other ways out of the cavern, through the roof or through other pathways.

 

"See all those holes around the walls? They're ways out! Split up!" Grey shouted, not hesitating to leave the group and sprint through the hoarde towards the exit he'd chosen.

 

With a nod, Natsu grabbed Lucy's wrist and sprinted in the opposite direction.

 

"What are you-" She begun.

 

"Come on, we gotta get out of here, and if there's someone as strong as Erza, we've gotta get out quick!" Natsu relatively easily found his way to an exit, and was about to leave, when one of the many fireballs aimed towards him instead hit Lucy, scorching her.

 

"What do you think you're doing?!" Natsu shouted, turning around to a pursuing crowd, a maelstrom of flame encircling him in raging heat.

 

"Natus, come on, we need to go!" Lucy begun.

 

"Just one second!" He shouted,

 

"Fire dragon roar!"

 

Lucy what had suddenly made him so upset, but was glad for his presence. Looking up, in front of the charred and terrified crowd, Natsu stood with a satisfied smile, before quickly grabbing Lucy's wrist, causing her to blush, and making his way out again.

 

Erza was dashing from side to side, trying to avoid Deidjin's attacks. Whatever Deidjin was, it was extremely powerful. Whenever she tried to attack it, she felt some invisible force holding her away from it. It must be using telekenisis.

 

Taking heed of the growing crowd around her, she quickly equipped her flight armor and dashed for a different exit, hoping that Deidjin wouldn't be able to stop her, as if she was forced to fight it properly, she wouldn't stand a chance with all the Bane's Gate soldiers gathering.

 

Fortunately, she was easily able to escape, and flew through a hole and up a tunnel to the surface, leaving the various raging shouts and flashing offensive spells behind her as she got to the surface, breathing in the cool night air, just in time to see Natsu climb out of another hole nearbye with a rather dazed looking Lucy.

 

Gray had almost made it to the exit, but there were too many mages. It seemed that most of Bane's Gate's stronger mages had targeted him. Soon, he simply wasn't able to keep pushing through the many wards in front of him while simultaniously blocking the many offensive spells. Eventually, he collapsed to the ground as various mages crowded around him, his vision blurring. He could barely move due to all the paralasys magic placed on him.

 

His eyelids begun to fall closed.

 

Then something odd happened.

 

There was a huge torrent of power as everyone was violently pushed away from him and the exit as a massive wave of water flooded through one of the exits. He could barely comprehend what was happening as he felt someone carrying him up the tunnel and onto the surface.

 

When he came to, there were 5 people.

 

"And I was following you the whole time, worried that my love would be hurt, and it turned out that I helped after all!"

 

"Nice goin' Juvia!" Natsu said.

 

Gray sighed, and smiled.

 

"Thanks Juvia. I owe ya one."


	8. Assault

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter! Please leave a comment to share your thoughts.

“So... You mean to say that five mages managed to get into our guildhall... And no one noticed!?” Reaver shouted.

 

“That is correct, sir.” The skeletal warrior beside him answered stoically.

 

“And they all heard our exact conversation in which we discussed stealing the arc sword, then proceeded to all escape with the information?”

 

“That is correct, sir.”

 

The robed man pondered for a moment before a sly smile formed.

 

“They were Fairy Tail mages, yes?”

 

“That is correct, sir.”

 

“Then we'll just have to eradicate their guild all together. Prepare the attack force.” Reaver concluded.

 

 

 

 

“So, Levy got rid of that terror spell?” Laxus asked, impressed.

 

“That's right, and now we'll be able to go with you and Freed to find a new life crystal!” Evergreen answered.

 

“Hey, that's a rather desolate look on ya face. Something the matter, Freed?”

 

“Eh, no – I'm just surprised Levy managed to break the spell so quickly!” He stumbled through his

words.

 

“Sure..” Bickslow remarked.

 

After briefly packing their things, the Thunder Legion once again left Magnolia to go on a group job to solve the problem of the giants.

 

 

 

 

“Well, you're looking tired today Levy. Everything okay?” Lucy asked.

 

“Yeah.. Makarov had me and Gajeel keep watch on the Museum overnight and I didn't sleep much..” She pronounced her point with a yawn, noticing Lucy's mischievous smile.

 

“What? Why does everyone react like that?” She asked, blushing.

 

“Oh, nothing. See you around!” Lucy waved, walking off.

 

After a moment of futile contemplation, Levy sat back and gave up with a sigh, remembering the night she and Gajeel guarded the museum. Surprisingly, there had been no attacks on it, so the time spent there was a waste. Despite this, she greatly enjoyed it when she gave up on working. She closed her eyes and remembered it.

 

“There are so many interesting things in here, Gajeel. Does none of it interest you at all?”

 

“Nope. It's all just junk as far as I'm concerned. I wonder if any of these ancient swords taste any good-”

 

“Nonono-stop!” Levy shouted at Gajeel, who was about to take a bite from one of the artefacts.

 

“Hey, calm down shrimp. I was just kidding. I ain't stupid.”

 

“Actually, there may be something here interesting to you.” Levy pondered.

 

“Eh?”

 

“Follow me.” Levy said, walking further in with Gajeel in tow, eventually reaching the first magic guitar ever.

 

“See this? It barely used magic at all. Just strings.”

 

“What? A guitar making sound without magic? What the crap?” Gajeel furrowed his brows, staring at the instrument inside the glass case. Levy giggled at his astounded face.

 

From then on, Gajeel begun finding more and more items interesting, until eventually the two were dragging each other around and showing off what they knew, both enjoying it. Come to think of it, they were barely defending the museum at all.

 

 

 

 

Suddenly, with a deafening shattering sound, one of the Guildhall's walls was completely smashed in. A hail of bricks and dust rained down on everyone, who barely had time to comprehend what was happening after all noise suddenly stopped, before a tremendous roar as hundreds of wizards stormed the guildhall.

 

No one had any time to react as they were bombarded with offensive spells, and only Erza, Mirajane and Makarov were stood to fight, but Makarov suddenly fell to his knees, to weak to stand, surprise on his face.

 

“Master? What is it?” Erza asked quickly.

 

“I don't.. Protect the guild...” And he fell to the ground, unconscious.

 

“Requip! Heaven's wheel!” Erza shouted as Mirajane took on her _Sitri_ Satan Soul.

 

“Just two people? Ha! Get'em!” A voice shouted.

 

The two S-class mages observed that they were all Bane's Gate mages as they attacked. It was a sudden fight that they were ill-prepared for, but the many waves of weak mages weren't strong enough to defeat Erza and Mirajane.

 

Or at least they thought, for the first few minutes. But after a while the mages, who kept coming, were getting stronger, and eventually, the two had barely any strength left and stood weary as another wave of Bane's Gate mages stood in front of them, spearheaded by a deformed warrior of bone.

 

“Don't stop now! Attack them!” It hissed in its icy, grinding voice.

 

Erza recognised it as the figure beside the cloaked man in the Bane's Gate guildhall. She and Mirajane had no time to recover as it leapt at them with unbelievable speed and strength, knocking them to the ground much like Deidjin did.

 

As the two stood up, the hostile mages formed circle and watched as the skeletal warrior figure beat them over and over again, their strength depleted.

 

After a short while, they stood on the ground, unable to stand up.

 

“That was easier than expected. It seems their 3 strongest members aside from their master aren't at the guildhall as of now. Well, no point hesitating. Kill them all.”

 

The mages lifted up their various weapons, ready to strike their prey and end their lives.

 

Time froze.

 

In what once was a wall, now a mess of rubble, stood a silhouette. One that had not been stood there before.

 

“What's this? Another Fairy Tail wizard?” The skeletal warrior asked.

 

The figure stepped forwards, revealing rugged brown hair and ripped cloak, with eyes full of hatred.

 

“Crap! It's Gildarts! We need to leave!”

 

“Calm down, he's just one person.”

 

“Yeesh, you lot need to show some more individuality. I leave for just a few days and the Guildhall's been invaded.”

 

“Shut up and get rid of them, Gildarts!” Cana shouted, one of the few people who was still conscious, the _call Gildarts_ card in hard hand which she used to contact him.

 

“Sure, anything you say sweetheart.”

 

With that, he turned to the skeletal warrior.

 

“You the one who took out Mira and Erza?”

 

“What of it?” It responded.

 

“I ain't allowing punks like you invading our guild. You almost killed my daughter. Now prepare to face the consequences!” Gildarts shouted, pushing his arm out to the side in one quick movement, smashing aside a whole wave of Bane's Gate mages, all others fleeing in terror apart from the skeletal warrior.

 

“We were sent here to destroy this guild. Only two of you stand now. I can do this myself!” It shouted, before preparing to attack, and dashing towards Gildarts.

 

Gildarts drew his hand back, and punched the warrior so hard that all 4 of its limbs flew off, and tumbled away from the guild, revealing its inhuman nature.

 

“Huh..” Gildarts commented.

 

“So what actually happened?” He asked.

 

“I have no idea.. These people just turned up, and.. Hey, where do you think you're going?” Cana commented, grabbing a retreating Bane's Gate mage.

 

“I'll tell you anything, just-” He begun.

 

“Good. Why did you attack?” Gildarts asked.

 

“I don't know, I swear!”

 

“Why did Makarov collapse?” Cana asked.

 

“You mean the old man, your guild master? Sullurk was leaching black magic into the guildhall, weakening him for several hours to stop him from fighting back.”

 

“Who's Sullurk?”

 

“The Skeletal warrior. He was created by Reaver, our Guildmaster, and he's one of his 3 Elder Guardians. I don't know any more than that, I swear!”

 

“Fine, scram.” Gildarts hissed, pushing him away.

 

 

 

 

Later on, when everybody had regained consciousness and Gildarts and Cana had talked them through what they knew, Makarov smashed his fist against the table.

 

“Why did this have to happen the moment Laxus and Gildarts left? They almost had us. Thank you, Gildarts.”

 

“I was just responding to my daughter's call.”

 

“You know what this means. Bane's Gate have declared war of Fairy Tail.” Makarov grimly remarked.

 

“And anyone who declares war on us gets destroyed!” Natsu shouted, encased in an aura of flame.

 

“Not quite yet, Natsu. It was a well planned attack, and we all need time to regain out strength.”

 

“ _Especially_ the Third master.”

 

Suddenly, Gajeel burst through the door into the guildhall followed by Levy, both out of breath and with panicked looks on their faces.

 

“Master Makarov! Gajeel and I went to check on the Museum when we came to – the Arc sword has been stolen!”


	9. Counterattack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter! Please leave a comment to share your thoughts.
> 
> I'm interested to know what everyone else thinks about the power in the main characters. I think that Lucy is quite a lot weaker than Gray and Natsu, and Gajeel is quite a lot stronger (apart from when Natsu is triggered) What about you?

"So, those scumbags think they can start a war with us?" Makarov growled, slamming his fist onto the table.

 

There was a lot of damage to the guildhall, the remains of one whole wall lying around on the floor. Several members of the guild had stayed to clean up the worst of the mess before they would have a new wall built while the others had gone home to recover from the sudden attack.

 

"They retreated for now. There's no doubt that they will be back later." Erza commented.

 

"Right. Then let's take them out before they become a real threat." Gilarts proposed.

 

"Exactly." Makarov answered, revealing the vengeful glint in his eye.

 

"We're going to tear them to the ground before they can use the arc sword." Mirajane finished.

 

After a few hours of recovering, most of the stronger members of the guild were ready to fight. And that was all it took, as they all left the guild, spearheaded by Makarov, and headed for the Bane's Gate guildhall.

 

Though the Thunder Legion still hadn't returned, Makarov was eager to destroy Bane's Gate before they used the Arc sword.

 

As the small group of just a few dozen of Fairy Tail wizards walked down the long, dusty road towards the map marker that Ebon had given them, lightning sparked in the sky, ominously creating foreboding images looming down at them, daring them to keep walking.

 

Eventually, the whole group of them came across a hidden doorway in the side of the hill. One they wouldn't have noticed if Ebon hadn't stopped them there.

 

"This is it. There's always someone standing around outside, so he must have spotted us and gone inside to warn them."

 

"Alright then!" Makarov shouted.

 

"They know we're here, and are probably preparing for our attack now, so let's be brief! These people are a threat to all of Fiore as they might just release Bane if we don't stop them! We need to get in there, destroy their guild and retake the Arc sword! Let's go!" He shouted, charging through the small door.

 

 

 

 

The Bane's Gate Guildmaster Reaver stood with his 3 Elder guardians around him.

 

"Sullurk. Reidjin. Rakota. We are under attack. All I need you to do is fend off these Fairy Tail wizards while I break the gate, and all of Bane's glorious, terrible power will be ours."

 

As the three of the powerful warriors quickly made their way out of the room into the main hall, he laughed to himself.

 

"As if I would share Bane's power. With all of it, I shall become the most powerful wizard known to Fiore. Zeref will fall under my shadow!" He smirked, eyeing the powerfully humming Arc sword beside him.

 

 

 

 

As soon as the Fairy Tail mages burst through the large door at the bottom of the staircase, they were immediately assaulted by a barrage of various spells.

 

In the front of the group stood Erza in adamantite armour, who managed to block almost every spell, the rest of them doing no harm.

 

"Attack!"

 

There the battle begun. The few dozen Fairy Tail wizards VS the hundreds of Bane's Gate wizards. To Natsu, the whole battle seemed to fade into the background as he felt an extremely powerful and familiar presence approach.

 

"Hey, it's that Skeleton warrior thing from earlier! Let's get it!" He shouted, only to be held back by Erza.

 

"Sullurk! Be careful, it's extremely powerful. It managed to knock Mirajane and me out earlier. We'll need to stick together to defeat it."

 

"Just make sure you've got my back!" Natsu shouted, jumping at it and predictably being instantly smashed back into his group.

 

Natsu, Lucy, Gray and Erza stood together facing the approaching warrior, as it suddenly leapt at them with astonishing speed and power, barely allowing them to dodge as it rapidly switched between targets, jumping around, never seeming to tire.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Gildarts had ran into some trouble. In front of him stood an abomination of human pieces floating in the air in humanoid form, stood beside a tall, robustly built metallic warrior.

 

"You're Deidjin, I take it?" Gildarts asked, gesturing to the mass of human pieces floating in the air.

 

"I heard you gave Erza some trouble."

 

"Yes, and you did the same to Sullurk. Though powerful as it may be, it is by far the weakest of the 3 Elder Guardians. Either one of us, the stronger 2, are incomparably stronger than it is."

 

"Is that so?" Gildarts asked, unphazed.

 

"I suppose I'll have to test that." He concluded.

 

 

 

 

Erza jumped back as Sullurk continued its assault.

 

"Requip! Heaven's Wheel!" She shouted, and emerged from a brilliant white light with several swords floating in a circle around behind her."

 

"Ice-Make floor!" Gray shouted, creating a slippery floor under where the skeletal warrior stood. It ignored this by smashing its feet deep into the ice to keep its grip, its continuous assault not slowed at all.

 

"Open! Gate of the golden bull! Taurus!" Lucy shouted, holding out one of the keys as the huge frame of Taurus emerged in front of her.

 

Before he could make a perverted comment, Sullurk had dashed up to him and punched him hard in the abdomen, causing him to keel over.

 

"Oh, come on. Is this all you've got?"

 

Erza shouted and sent a huge volley of swords towards it, which it dodged most of and batted aside those which it couldn't dodge.

 

As Grey tried to Ice-make hammer it, it simply smashed the hammer with its fists.

 

"Does this damn thing ever tire out?" Natsu shouted, taking a breath.

 

"Fire dragon roar!"

 

The hall was filled with orange light and heat as Sullurk was engulfed in scathing flame. Soon after, it emerged, barely harmed.

 

It laughed again.

 

"You, pink hair. You gave quite the impressive show in your escape earlier when someone hit the Celestial wizard with a spell."

 

"What are you saying!?" He shouted, instantly protective.

 

"It's simple." Sullurk responded, dashing towards Lucy and instantly knocking her out.

 

 

 

 

Gildarts stepped back in defence as the two wizards in front of him attacked him. Deidjin usually kept his distance, using telekinesis magic to inconvenience and hurt Gildarts while Rakota leapt at him with surprising speed. They made a good combination, especially considering tha Rakota used summoning magic to summon spikes. All of them had missed so far due to Gildarts's reflexes, though he was tiring quickly.

 

"I was almost killed by the demon Deliora when it attacked my village, but survived! Now what was torn off me is replaced to make me faster and stronger! You don't stand a chance!" Rakota shouted.

 

"And I was once Guildmaster of a dark guild. The Magic Council had us eradicated with a magic bomb, though I survived too. Pieces of me. Now I use magic to animate myself, and cannot be harmed as I can put myself back together. Give up while you can!" Deidjin shouted while attacking with surprising strength. Gildarts noted that one of Deidjin's punches was enough to knock Erza down as he blocked its hit.

 

"You two aren't very bright, are ya?" He asked.

 

"You've hurt Fairy Tail, my guild, and my friends there. I'm not just gonna give up. I'm gonna keep attacking you until your entire guild comes crumbling to the ground!" Gildarts shouted in retaliation.

 

 

 

 

An ear-splitting shout echoed through the cave as Gray and Erza backed off, protecting the unconscious Lucy.

 

"You just made a big mistake, fella!" Natsu shouted.

 

"I'm gonna tear you apart!"

 

Sullurk continued its laugh.

 

"This better be worth the tim-" But was cut off as Natsu punched it in the face so quickly that it couldn't react, flying across the entire cavern and smashing into the opposite wall, Natsu jumping after it.

 

"Lucky hit!" Sullurk shouted, springing up and continuing its attack on Nastsu, who was comfortably fighting back, not taking a single hit.

 

"First you made an enemy of Fairy Tail but now me!" Natsu shouted between colossal punches to the skeletal warrior. Soon, it could barely put up a fight as all of its limbs had been completely destroyed.

 

"Heh, that's how you ended up when you fought Gildarts. Pretty stupid of ya. But he didn't finish you off!"

 

"Wait-" Sullurk shouted before Natsu ripped the head off the body and crushed it under his foot.

 

"That's one dealt with."


	10. Heroes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter! Please leave a comment to share your thoughts.
> 
> Anybody else think Gildarts doesn't get nearly enough screen time in the anime?

"Reaver! You must stop this madness before it is too late!" Makarov shouted.

 

The cloaked man laughed.

 

"But why would I? The power of Bane is just the stroke of a sword away, and no one could stop me! How can you possibly _hope_ to stand against me? You're still weak from the attack. You don't have half your power."

 

"I don't need half of my power to stand up for Fairy Tail! Now surrender! This is your last chance!"

 

"Or what?"

 

"I will take the Arc sword back by force."

 

"Ah. Well, come on then!" The cloaked man shouted.

 

"Rain of Light!" Makarov shouted, extending one arm forwards as a brilliant shower of light burst from it towards the dark Guildmaster, who smirked and batted it aside with some kind of huge black wire about a foot wide.

 

"What?" Makarov asked, surprised.

 

"I expected more. You must have lost more power than I thought." Reaver commented.

 

Reaver smirked as a huge black wire came out from between his hands and snaked its way around him.

 

"What is that?" Makarov asked, stalling for time. He knew fully well that he had barely enough strength to stand and wouldn't stand a chance in a real fight. Fortunately, Reaver was foolish and wasted time testing Makarov's power.

 

"Oh, this? It's a little something I call the Imperium Filum."

 

Makarov's eyes widened.

 

"Imperium?"

 

"I'm an Imperuim mage too, you know. The second those bastards in Allkin found out I didn't have their perfect pure magic, they cast me out like some dog!" He shouted as the wire extended suddenly from his hands and launched head-on into Makarov, hitting him straight in the head and knocking him to the ground.

 

"Come on, I want a fight out of you. Even it it's not much." Reaver's eye glinted evilly as he moved his hands around in a complicated gesture, and seemed to be preparing a powerful attack spell.

 

"Three Pillar Gods!" Makarov shouted, crossing his arms in front of him as three huge pillars that seemed to be as tall as the entire cavern surrounded him.

 

 

 

 

"Hey, you're kinda tough." Gildarts casually commented, as he punched straight through Deidjin, shattering all the pieces, which immediately came together into the humanoid form.

 

"How many times must I tell you? You can't hurt me, I will always reform, no matter how many pieces you knock out of me!"

 

"Is that true?" Gildarts smirked as he raised an arm towards Deidjin.

 

"Crush!" He shouted.

 

"What are you-" Deidjin begun before the individual pieces of flesh that made up his body begun to break apart.

 

"Stop this! No!" Deidjin could barely move as it fell into more and more pieces, Gildarts focusing grimly on the crushing magic.

 

Soon, Deidjin was crushed into such small pieces that he fell to the ground like dust.

 

The dust pile tried to form in the centre and slowly begun to regain the shape of Deidjin.

 

"Oh no you don't. Crushing evil, spreading the truth: Absolute heaven!" Gildarts shouted, punching the slowly reforming Deidjin and causing a huge explosion where his fist hit.

 

Dust flew across the entire cavern, and settled. Deidjin couldn't hope to reform.

 

"One down, one to go."

 

"How the hell are you this powerful?" Rakota shouted, jumping towards Gildarts.

 

After a brief but intense brawl, Gildarts knocked Rakota to the ground, unconscious.

 

"You're quite strong, you just picked the wrong side." Gildarts concluded, before walking away calmly.

 

 

 

 

"Well, I'm impressed." Reaver commented, Makarov standing unscathed inside his defence seal, the Imperium Filum unable to break through.

 

"That's a strong defence spell you got there. I might not even be able to break through it at all, even considering how little power you have. Fortunately, I don't need to. It's been good, but I have an Arc sword to use."

 

"Not so fast!" Natsu shouted, landing behind Reaver.

 

"You got a lot to answer to!"

 

"Indeed. Surrender now and you won't get hurt!" Erza shouted, backed by Gray.

 

Reaver's growing smirk didn't fade as Gildarts approached.

 

"You the Guildmaster here? Those guardians of yours were pretty impressive."

 

Slowly, that smirk turned into grim determination.

 

"Well I don't need my guardians! I'll take on each and every one of you! You're just lowly vermin! Makarov is the only one of you Fairies who is worth something as a wizard and he's already as good as dead! Now lie down and die quickly!"

 

Reaver shouted before shoving both arms in front of him and launching a volley of attacks on them with the Imperuim Fillum.

 

"Well, I'll give ya this.. It's the strongest Imperium spell I've ever seen. But I've only ever seen two!" Natsu shouted.

 

"We've fought dark Guildmasters before! There was this one called Hades of Grimoire Heart. He was a hundred times stronger than you!" Gray continued.

 

"Give up, Reaver! You can't win!" Erza concluded.

 

"Silence! I am above all of you!" Reaver shouted as a dark aura begun to form around him.

 

"We'd better finish this before things get too out of hand." Gildarts begun, stepping forwards, a ground shattering white aura beginning to form around him.

 

"Not you!" Reaver shouted, extending an arm towards him and freezing him in place.

 

"What the hell.." Gildarts begun, unable to move.

 

"This spell works better on people with higher magic power. I built it for when I become the strongest wizard ever, I could stop anything stronger than me easily. The strongest person I've ever used it on was barely dazed, meaning you must have an unfathomably huge magic reserve."

 

"Hey, you forgot something!" Natsu shouted.

 

"You're fighting us!" Natsu shouted, launching himself at Reaver, who couldn't guard himself in time as was knocked to the ground, releasing Gildarts.

 

"That's one hell of a spell you got there. A nasty one too." Gildarts commented.

 

"Give up, Reaver! You can't win!"

 

"Damn you people! I was so close!" He shouted, again trying to attack the group with the Imperuim Filum but to no avail. Soon, he gave up and begun charging for some attack, holding his hands in the air as a huge black vortex begun to form.

 

Without hesitation, Gildarts held out a hand.

 

"'I'll deconstruct whatever he's trying to do."

 

As he does, a bolt of black lightning came from the ball and hit him, jolting him off course. Then, there was a flash of white light as the deconstruction spell set in.

 

Everyone stared as Reaver fell to pieces on the floor.

 

"Oh God. I didn't mean to hit him, I swear. That thing knocked me off!" Gildarts begun.

 

"It is fine. So long as Fiore is safe for now, we'll discuss it later. Ersa, Natsu, Gray, Gildarts. Go and make sure no one is hurt."

 

"Yes master." They answered and walked away.

 

 

 

 

On the other side of the Cavern, a Bane's Gate mage made his way towards the elites only area. Apparently they had taken the Arc sword there before going out to confront Fairy Tail. Seeing an opportunity, he threw open the doors and was amazed to see the sword sat there on a table, completely unguarded. He let out a laugh and picked it up.

 

It was extremely heavy, far more than he would have thought, but he still picked it up. He gave it an experimental swing and a deep, resonant hum cut through the air as an arc of magic power leapt off the sword and dug into the walls and ceiling, carving several metres into hit. The sword glowed a savage green.

 

Laughing, he made his way to the lower levels where he knew no one was allowed. If the rumours were true, then this was where Bane was. Easily slicing through the security with the arc sword that he had spent years trying to break, he ran lower and lower until he came to a huge, _enourmas_ gate that stretched out beyond what the eye could see up and down and left and right, a thick mist covering the rest of it inside an even larger cavern than the one above.

 

Excitement buzzed through him as he slowly raised the sword to the dark, heavy door with demonic carvings all over it.

 

 

 

 

Ebon sprinted towards the giant door beside Lunanto which obviously lead to Bane . He had followed the Bane's Gate mage down when he realised the Arc sword had been taken. He ran desperately to catch up, and time slowed as the sword was raised above the mage's head.

 

He managed to create an arcane link between himself and the sword before it hit the door, binding all of its magic to him. As the sword slammed against the door, a powerful sphere encased Ebon with a loud screaching sound. The Bane's Gate mage and Lunanto stared at Ebon in horror as the door was completely unscathed, but the sphere had turned completely white. The attacking power of the sword's swing had been transferred completely to Ebon to protect the door and keep Bane sealed in, and whent he sphere faded, Ebon was completely gone. That was it.

 

"You bastard!" Lunanto shouted, running towards the mage, summoning the Imperium sphere, but finding instead he accidentally summoned the Imperium Filum, coming out of his hands. Surprised, he attacked the mage with it, and quickly knocked him out, grabbing the sword with the wire and returning it to his hands, which he stared at. He had spontatneously learnt the Imperium spell that the Guildmaster had used.

 

 

 

 

"Lunanto? Where were you? We were worried." Ersa scolded.

 

"The Arc sword.. A mage almost used it it break Bane's Gate. Ebon stopped it, but was destroyed in the process.. He saved us.. But now he's gone." Lunanto spoke, holding up the sword.

 

"That kid.. That was incredible of him. Not only did he stop Bane from being released, but found a way to properly destroy the Greykin magic." Makarov begun.

 

"What?" Lunanto asked.

 

"Greykin magic is violent and destructive. It's properly for the better that the Arc sword destroyed it, and he knew it. His sacrifice was not in vain. Gildarts, have the Arc sword sent to the Magic Counsil so they can disenchant it. We never knew how dangerous it could truly be."

 

"Alright then. See you around." He casually commented, taking the sword and giving it an experimental swing before walking away with it.

 

"So everything is fixed?" Natsu asked.

 

"Not even close." Lunanto answered.

 

"We still don't know what's going on in Allkin to have all of this Imperium magic to start appearing. And there's still that prophecy that one day, some _spirit of purity_ will arrive in Allkin and wipe Imperium from it." He continued.

 

"I suppose that some day, all of this will be made clear. In the meantime, we'd best get back to the guildhall to help the injured." Makarov concluded.


	11. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter! Please leave a comment to share your thoughts.

A few days had passed since Bane's Gate and Fairy Tail's war with each other. Since then, the Arc sword had been destroyed and Bane's Gate disbanded. Ever since then, Lunanto had been spending a lot of time in the old Bane's Gate guildhall, examining everything from the tables to the grand gate which held Bane itself.

 

Lunanto had found a critical piece of information. One he found hard to believe. So, he ran back to the guildhall to get it all written down, then announced it to the whole guild.

 

_Reaver, Bane's Gate's late Guildmaster, knew of a connection between Earthrealm and Allkin. It was near Bane's Gate, which was why so many Imperium Mages had turned up there._

 

_He planned on abusing this._

 

_He knew, from traversing in and out occasionally, that Imperium was taking over. He himself did not understand why, but he did create the prophecy. A fake prophecy._

 

_He planted it deep within Allkin's archives, and they actually believe that it is extremely old. Now that Imperium is taking, over, which was involved in the prophecy, everybody believed it to be true._

 

_Instead of the spirit of purity, however, Reaver planned on using the Arc sword to free Bane and release it upon Allkin, who had their defences down for the moment, expecting the spirit._

 

_Reaver then planned to rule over the wreckage of Imperium._

 

_Which meant the whole prophecy was fake._

 

But that still didn't answer the question of why Imperium was happening in the first place. That was a question that Fairy Tail were trying to answer, doing all the research they could but no one understood what was happening.

 

 

 

 

Many months ago, Edolas was left without magic. They had got too greedy and tried to pull in too much ethernano from Earthrealm, and that resulted in all magic in Edolas being pulled out.

 

During this time, Mystogan became the prince of Edolas. Thus far, everything had been fine. Adjusting to life without magic was tough, especially for someone like Mystogan.

 

But then something happened.

 

He sensed something.

 

Something magical.

 

Mystogan frowned. It had been a long time since he'd sensed anything magic like that. Magic couldn't possibly be returning to Edolas. Which only meant one thing.

 

Some kind of magic from another realm had somehow entered Edolas.


End file.
